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Hi, Dr. Greg Malakoff here, sharing some life experience hoping that it will make your experience of life a little more hopeful and pleasant.
Some people ask me what a Chiropractor can do for sciatic leg pain. Sometimes I can’t help myself and I ask them where have they been? In the bad old days, when the AMA used to take chiropractors to court it was for the sole purpose of restricting their practice to low back pain. But they wouldn’t let us treat low back pain if there was sciatic radiation of pain down the leg. They felt that was very dangerous.
Luck for you and technology for us, has changed that paradigm around 180 degrees. At is what is considered the top medical university in America because of its high success rates coupled with lower costs, The University of Pittsburg, now considers it to be malpractice to have not sent a pinched sciatic nerve pain patient to a chiropractor first since we are now recognized as the best and safest medical modality for the treatment of lower back pain with or without sciatica.
I can’t think of a more stunning and powerful endorsement.
What Can be Done for Your Sciatica and How Long Does it Take
Sciatica is caused by any type of pressure on the sciatic nerve. Just very mild pressure can cause excruciating pain. The nerve travels out of the spine. So a disc that is bulging onto it can cause sciatica. So can arthritis around the joints or facets in the spine where the nerve roots exit to form the sciatic nerve. The sciatic nerve passes through a muscle in your butt called the piriformis and if that muscle is too tight you can experience the same pain as if your disc was herniated, which is worse than a bulged disc. Piriformis syndrome is often overlooked by practitioners. Quite rarely a tumor can be putting pressure on the nerve. Gynecological issues can mimic sciatica as well and all these factors need to be considered.
There have been countless studies by medical researchers, insurance companies and Workers Compensation Boards that prove that chiropractic is the most effective and economical way to treat this condition if it is not caused by a severely ruptured/ herniated disc.
Quite often if it is a chiropractic problem that is causing the sciatic pain you may experience very significant and quick results. However, chronicity, that is how long you have had the problem is a large consideration to what kind of results you can expect.
Comparative Treatments for Sciatica
When you compare it to those commercials where an actor dressed as a doctor recommends that you ask your doctor for a product that they tell you in the very same commercial, that their stuff could kill you.
Or if you read the medical literature you might not realize what this means but I’m going to tell you. Quite often a drug is compared to a placebo and the literature states that this new drug is at least as effective as a placebo. A placebo is nothing. It is a pill filled with nothing. So this new drug that costs hundreds of dollars, that they are telling you to ask your doctor for is no better than nothing at all.
With that in mind, it is with great pride that I can tell you that Chiropractic is the most effective treatment for sciatic pain that is not being caused by a huge herniated disc. Most people do not have a 9mm disc bulge causing their sciatica, but if you do, then the chances are close to zero that you would benefit from a chiropractic adjustment. Again, there is a very high probability that you don’t own a 9 mm disc bulge.
If I can help you I’ll tell you. If I can’t, I’ll tell you that as well. Before I can do that you need to call me. I’m not psychic. (310) 663-9975
